Economics 101 has its merits

It’s a common denigration of simple economics that it is simplistic. The world’s much more complex than that description of it in the Economics 101 course. This is why - the argument inevitably goes on to point out - we must do these things which violate those precepts of Economics 101. You know the sort of thing. Sure, higher prices mean people buy less but this doesn’t apply to a minimum wage because reasons. We’ve even seen the argument that higher corporate taxes would increase investment because complexity.

So it’s nice to see agreement that this base and basic view of the world does still have some power:

Low EU purchase prices per vaccine might have further slowed down deliveries.

That’s directly from the chart on the first page or two of every Econ 101 book, the supply and demand curves. The lower the price on offer the less excited people are to supply the item. A useful confirmation of the textbook from that reality outside the window.

We also have confirmation of a finding from Politics 101:

But the EU must now learn lessons. It needs institutions comparable with those of the US to deal with such situations. The commission’s initiative to boost the European Health Emergency Response Authority is to be supported. EU citizens should decide how much risk they are willing to take when it comes to vaccine authorisation and liability, and leaders should provide more financing for vaccine development and procurement. For now, the EU’s priority must be to mobilise all financial and political resources to increase vaccine supplies.

The current political structure hasn’t worked very well. Therefore we must give more power to the current political structure. This is indeed basic politics, removing power from failure is something that only happens out in markets - you know, that part of life that works?